Miller gets right on road as Mariners take opener in Cleveland

CLEVELAND -- For almost all of the 2024 season, Bryce Miller has looked anything but comfortable at anywhere that isn’t T-Mobile Park.

That changed Tuesday night, as the 25-year-old spun a gem in Seattle’s 8-5 win over the Guardians at Progressive Field in a battle between two of the top teams in the American League.

It marked the first time that Miller won a start on the road since he tossed seven scoreless innings against the Brewers in his second start of the year. While he’s looked like an ace at home (1.82 ERA) and anything but (5.94 entering Tuesday) away from the Pacific Northwest, he, along with all the rest of Seattle's starters, has a WHIP of 1.15 or less. That said, it still left room for improvement, as he allowed two runs in the sixth inning (one earned) and left with two outs and two runners on.

“I felt good. I got a little gassed towards the end,” Miller said.

He ended up relying heavily on his fastball on Tuesday (59% usage, which was up 14% from his season average), which he said was due to the hot and humid conditions at Progressive Field.

“It’s kind of weird. When my hands get that sweaty, I almost have more grip on the splitter, which makes it a little difficult to locate. I was just trying to throw it harder than I have in the last couple weeks.”

He also ran into some turbulence in the second inning when Cleveland loaded the bases with no one out on the back of two walks and a single, but was able to limit the damage to one run thanks to a strikeout and two groundouts.

The Mariners’ offense gave Miller the lead a half-inning after that with a four-run outburst that was keyed by a two-run home run from J.P. Crawford. Crawford’s home run had a launch angle of 39 degrees, which set a new career high.

The other two runs came on RBI doubles from Cal Raleigh and Mitch Garver, with Raleigh’s double helping chase Guardians starter Triston McKenzie, who surrendered four runs on three hits and four walks in 2 1/3 innings.

“He didn’t look like he was on top of his game tonight and when you have a guy out there like that you’ve got to keep the pressure on, and we did that,” manager Scott Servais said.

Dylan Moore continued his domination of Cleveland pitching by going 2-for-4 with a home run, double and stolen base. He’s now hit five doubles and six home runs in 16 career games against the Guardians.

Northeast Ohio native Luke Raley had a noteworthy homecoming, as he crushed a 371-foot home run off Scott Barlow in the fifth inning and recorded his first MLB ejection in the ninth inning after arguing balls and strikes with umpire Hunter Wendelstedt.

Raley, who grew up in nearby Hinckley and had close to 60 friends and family in the stands, clubbed his home run to left field, where it was dropped by his uncle, Scott Profitt.

“He’ll be hearing about that at Thanksgiving,” Raley said with a chuckle. “He was yelling down at me and said it was right in his hands. I was watching it on the iPad afterwards and saw him laughing. It was cool to hit it right at him.”

After Miller was pulled in the sixth inning, Austin Voth got Brayan Rocchio to fly out to Julio Rodríguez to end the scoring threat. The Guardians added a run in the seventh inning and had a chance to tie the game in the eighth with the bases loaded, but Andrés Muñoz got Steven Kwan to ground into a fielder's choice to negate the threat.

With the win, the Mariners tied the season series with Cleveland at two games apiece with two games left in the series.

“Road wins are always exciting,” Seravis said.